London with Tina

Tina and I spent three days in London during the second week of Oscar's fall break from school (in October).  Sara stayed with a family from church and the boys stayed with a different family (also from church).  I cashed in the last of my Hyatt points so we stayed at the Andaz Liverpool Street for free (same as when I took Oscar to London in July).


Day 1
We got up at 3AM to catch a 6AM flight.  I had been at work until almost 1AM to finish some things that needed to be done before I left for three days so I was pretty tired the rest of the day.  Fortunately there were no problems getting to the airport this time.  We flew Ryan Air to Stansted Airport and took a shuttle bus from the airport to Liverpool Street in central London.  The hotel was a two-minute walk from the place where the shuttle bus dropped us off so we dumped our bags with the hotel and set out to explore London.

Our first stop was the British Museum.  Oscar hated this museum when we went together in July.  He said it was just looking at rocks.  Tina and I both enjoyed the museum.  The exhibits from ancient Egypt and Greece were fascinating.

The Elgin Marbles should probably be returned to Athens.

These mummies have never been opened -- the bodies are still inside.

After leaving the museum, we ate lunch at Chipotle.

After lunch we wandered around Picadelli Circus and visited two more museums -- the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Art Museum.  We ate dinner at an Indian restaurant and then headed back to the hotel.

Day II

We started the day with a bike tour from Fat Tire Bike Tours.  The tour guide we had from Fat Tire Bikes was not great but not horrible either.  I think the tour guide that led the walking tour I did with Oscar in July knew more about the city.  Because we were on bikes, we were able to cover much more ground than a walking tour.  We rode through Hyde Park (twice) and got to see a lot of the "Royal" parts of London.

After the Bike Tour we went to see the Tower Bridge.

We ate dinner at an Indian restaurant and ended the day at the Apollo Victoria Theatre for a performance of Wicked.

Day III
Our flight back to Frankfurt was at 8PM so we still had most of the day to do things in London.  Tina wanted to visit some of the places where the Harry Potter movies had been filmed.  We also visited the Musem of London and Imperial War Museum.

View of London Bridge and then Tower Bridge as seen from Millennium Bridge.

Saint Paul's Cathedral.

Protestant London blamed Catholics for the Great Fire.

Here, by the permission of Heaven, hell broke loose upon this protestant city, from the malicious hearts of barbarous Papists, by the hand of their agent Hubert, who confessed, and on the ruins of this place declared the fact, for which he was hanged, viz. That here began the dreadful fire, which is described and perpetuated on and by the neighbouring pillar, erected Anno 1680, in the mayoralty of Sir Patience Ward, knight.

Leadenhall Market (aka Diagon Alley).

Which way is out?

Little Boy